Egyptian working class prepared way for victory. Mahalla Workers Lead April 2008..

Mahalla workers on strike

Workers prepared the ground for victory.

The victory of the Egyptian movement was prepared by the movement of the working class over the past years when we had the biggest strike movement Egypt witnessed in more than half a century. From 2004 to 2008 over 1.7 million workers participated in more than 1,900 strikes and other forms of protest. In the recent period there have been 3,000 strikes, including all sectors, both government and private. Many of them were successful, leading to wage increases. What became clear however was that improved living standards were no longer enough to satisfy the workers.

Thousands of workers of the Mahalla Spinning and Weaving Company went on strike on Thursday demanding better wages. According to the Center for Trade Union & Workers’ Services (CTUWS), 24,000 workers took part in the protest. The workers from the morning shift had joined their colleagues from the night shift and gathered in front of the company’s headquarters, where they announced their strike and their solidarity with the protesters in Tahrir Square.

Protesters just scratched Mubarak from subway stop, Egypt Blogger

The workers at government textile mills at El Mahalla el Kubra and tens of thousands more at smaller private factories are the soul of the Egyptian labour movement. Events in Mahalla on April 6, 2008 changed everything. Tens of thousands of people in this city of half a million came onto the streets. "Our slogans now are not labour union demands," said Mohamad Murad, a railway worker, union coordinator and leftist politician. "Now we have more general demands for change."

The police opened fire, killing two people, and crowds rampaged through the streets, setting fire to buildings, looting shops and throwing bricks at the officers. Protesters tore down and stomped on a giant portrait of Mubarak in the central square. "This uprising was the first to break the barrier of fear all over Egypt," Murad said. "On that Friday, the crowds controlled the city". […] No one can say that Egypt was the same afterward." There is no question that these strikes played a key role in breaking the fear of the rest of the people, starting with the workers themselves. The April 6 youth movement grew out of that movement of the workers.

Seven million people are unemployed in Egypt. Seventy six percent of youth have no job. Five million people live on seventy dollars a month and in the private sector wages are only one hundred and ten dollars a month. Four million people have no health care. Forty percent of the population live below poverty. Now as an alternative to this look at the Mubarak family and their wealth. There are different estimates. The lowest by the British paper The Guardian is twelve billion dollars, not million, billion. Other estimates are forty billion dollars to seventy billion dollars. Even if it is the lowest of these estimates this is absolutely staggering. It is enough to transform the lives of all Egyptians.

This is an incredible amount of money that Mubarak has stolen from the Egyptian economy. This fortune and those of all of the ruling class must be taken back. The gap between Mubarak and his class and the mass of Egyptians is enormous. The coming movement will seek to deal with this. Be careful as you watch the mass capitalist media as they will seek to talk only of democratic issues and ignore the class issues such as wages and conditions, the wealth of the ruling class and the gap between the rich and the poor and also the independent needs and interests of the working class. The working class in Egypt will however seek to put its own interests at the center of the struggles to come and the shape of the new Egypt. We must help them in this.

Sean.